India in talks to buy first bullet trains

Northeastern Indian minority residents of Bangalore wait on the platform of the city railway station to board trains bound to Guwahati on Aug 16, 2012 in Bangalore. India is in talks to buy its first bullet trains for the nation's creaking and accident-prone network, but the new fleet will run at only a fraction of its top speed, a report said on Wednesday. -- PHOTO: AFP

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India is in talks to buy its first bullet trains for the nation's creaking and accident-prone network, but the new fleet will run at only a fraction of its top speed, a report said on Wednesday.

The government is speaking to Japanese, French and German manufacturers to purchase six new trains, which are capable of running at speeds of up to 325 kph, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

"Such projects have a long gestation period, but one has to start somewhere," the newspaper quoted an anonymous official as saying in its report headlined: "Soon: Bullet trains for tortoise tracks".

India's fastest train, the Bhopal Shatabdi, which carries passengers between the capital Delhi and the central Indian city of Bhopal, runs at a maximum speed of 150 kph.